Thursday, April 15, 2010

If Martha made Vietnamese-- Coconut Sorbet and my love affair with Cuisinart!

Just in time for the weekend and with the weather finally turning warmer, I thought it might be time for another cool refreshing treat, perfect for a hot day. This time it's a dessert. A sorbet to be specific and perfect for a sweet tooth.

There are versions of coconut sorbet all over south-east Asia. I think the next time I make it, I think I'll try it just after a spicy hot Vietnamese dish.

A couple pointers-I couldn't find unsweetened shredded coconut. (And thanks to Chris I knew that using sweetened coconut would make the sorbet far to sweet. Thx Chris!) So I took the sweetened shredded coconut and rinsed in it in a colander. Then spread it on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven at 250 degrees to dry it out. Worked like a charm!

And a note about coconut milk. Please use coconut milk. NOT coconut juice, or coconut cream, or coconut anything else. (Staci-There isn't actually any milk in coconut milk. Dairy free!)

We have a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. I love love love this appliance! It has a cylinder that you store in the freezer so it's always ready to go. And it's not too big either. It is one of my favorite wedding gifts to give. In the hot desert summers, often I will just throw in limeade or lemonade made from concentrate. The kiddos LOVE this simple treat. The kiddos have been experimenting with fresh fruits mixed with all different kinds of juices, then mixing them in the blender and then adding this mixture to the ice cream maker. Sometimes they add a bit of sugar if need be. Making ice creams, frozen yogurts, and in this case sorbet, has never been SO easy with no ice or salt. (I'm hoping Cuisinart will get wind on my glowing endorsement and will send me one for free! Maybe this could be the start one of those "give-away" blogs if Cuisinart would throw one my way!!!) When we have company over, I'll throw mix together whatever juice I have in the fridge and frozen berries I keep in the freezer (strawberries, peaches, mixed berries...)then toss this in to Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker before dinner. This is such an impressive dessert for company! I LOVE my Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker and so do my brood of adorable kiddos! It makes me a better mommy! (Too much you think?)

This recipe is super simple. First I make a simple syrup with water and sugar on the stove top. Then mix the remaining ingredients with the syrup and pour in the in your cream maker.

Freeze.
Garnish. (The salted peanuts are so yummy on top!)
Enjoy.
It's that easy.
Kiddos old enough to use a cook top, can do this one on their own.

4 comments:

oh. my. heavens. sign me up! And guess what, we have that Cuisinart! I can't wait to give this a try - and good idea for the coconut. I wonder if I could fuind unsweetened at Whole Foods, if not, I love how you got the sugar off. Brilliantly done.

This looks MUCH more delicious than the sorbet I made (and I'm sure it tasted it too), but we don't have an ice cream maker - time to get one! What you did with the coconut was brilliant and the salted peanuts on top?? Yummo!

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